Emo Piece
by KurrydaJellydonut
Summary: As a child, Monkey D. Luffy often listened to the tales of "Red-Haired" Shanks, and the great prize called the "Emo Piece", which is awarded to the greatest rock band in the nation. Join him as he and his band rock their way to the greatest prize ever!
1. Chapter 1

**Emo Piece:**

Chapter 1

Wow, practicing my emo look is really annoying. Everytime I try to be the least bit serious my face gets messed up into a giant frown. But I guess I'm just really excited. Today is the day. Now, the only thing I need to make this perfect is for Nii-chan to get here--

"LUFFY!!" I heard Nii-chan call to me.

"COMING ACE!!" I ran down the stairs into the arms of my brother. We both started jumping up and down chanting, "Today's the day today's the day." We finished with a "YOSHA!!"

Outside the screen door behind my brother, Sanji was taking a smoke. Don't tell anyone this, but he's only 17 and the legal age to get cigarettes here is 18 (even though he is turning 18 next month). There is this "Candy Store" here that sells cigarettes to minors. I personally think it's bad, but there's nothing I can really do about Sanji's addiction. Even if the store is closed down, Sanji would still be addicted. Wow, that took a lot of thought. Now my head hurts. I hate thinking.

On with the story. Er, I think I was...oh yeah. So, Ace told me to get my bass and we left.

"Ja Jii-Chan!" I called out to my grandfather.

"Yeah yeah yeah git outta mah house!" He responded tiredly. I smiled. Silly old war veteran. Eats too much donuts.

Ace unlocked the trunk and I dumped my bass there. The car we always take is the Toyota Rav 4. It's actually Sanji's mom's car. I got in the backseat and there were my two best buddies, Usopp and Zoro. Usopp was on the far left and Zoro was in the middle, right next to me. Apparently, he decided to take a nap and his head was leaned back against the headrest with his mouth slightly open. A little drool was dribbling out. I started giggling.

"Kishishishishi! Hey Ace!" I whispered.

"Neh, Luffy?" He whispered back.

"Zoro's drooling!!"

Seeing what I meant, Nii-chan started giggling softly alongside me. Sanji finally finished his ciggy and got in the shotgun.

"Sanji! Sanji! Get your camera out!" Ace said to Sanji with a loud whisper.

"Huh? Why are we whispering?" Ace pointed to Zoro with his chin and Sanji quickly took out the camera. Sanji had to restrain himself from giggling to get the camera straight. We heard the click of the button and saw the flash going off.

I was ready to burst. This was definitely going on Facebook. Zoro's head shot up. Luckily, Sanji already put the camera away.

"Did something happen?" He asked. None of us could take it anymore. We all started laughing. "What happened?"

Sanji took out the camera and showed him. Zoro's face became a bright shade of pink. "Delete that!"

"No!" We all shouted.

"Why not?"

"Because," Sanji began, "It's our first picture on the road to GLORY!"

"GLORY!!" The rest of us shouted.

"Yeah, let's go!" Ace shouted as he turned on the ignition. And we drove off, on the road to the legendary Emo Piece. We all get off topic easily.

Well, we were in the car for two hours. We really didn't do anything except listen to music and talk about random stuff.

I guess you are wondering what this Emo Piece is. Well, it is a yearly prize given out to America's best rock band. But, it's not just any prize, it is 2,500,000 and a contract with a recording studio! If we win, then we get um, Ace said 500,000 each! That's a lot of money! And if we get big through the company, then we get even more! I sound kind of greedy, but none of us are really rich and we come from a bad neighborhood. We all have our personal histories, but we really don't judge each other by the past.

I guess I should start off with Usopp. Usopp's our drummer. His father died when he was seven in a boating accident. From then on, it was just him and his mom. His mom is now in the hospital with cancer, so he dropped out of High School and is now working odd jobs to pay for his mother's treatment.

Next up is Sanji. Sanji is our lead guitarist. Sanji is living with his little sister and his mother. Their dad walked out on them after an argument. His parents weren't married, his father doesn't need to pay child support, wherever he is. He is his Uncle Zeff's sous-chef and is set to inherit the Baratie french cuisine.

There's also Zoro. He's our back-up guitarist. Zoro's family lives in the back of a house. That's not _that_bad, but imagine living in the back of a house with 11 other siblings. They can't afford heating or AC either, and all the girls share a bed and all the boys share another bed. Zoro and his twin sister sleep on a floor mattress.

Now there's us. I'm kind of shy when telling our story. We're sort of...illegal I guess? Well, I can't really tell the details, since we'll get into LOTS of trouble, but we were smuggled out of North Korea by our Japanese father, and we became Japanese citizens. Ace and I moved here to America after our father got a transfer here. Well, he died after we got naturalized, and we're now living with our Jii-chan. And about Mom, we have no idea what happened to her. She's in North Korea now, I guess. But once we win the Emo Piece, we are going to find her. I'm not sure how, 

but a good friend once told me "If you have a passion then you can do anything. Go out there Luffy, and sail towards your true heart's desire!". And you know something? I will.

Something funny caught my interest.

Zoro found Sanji's camera case right next to his arm. There was no way he was going to let that shit-cook put that on facebook. Slowly reaching for the camera, Sanji caught him quickly, and hid his camera case.

"Marimo! I'm never gonna deleted that--" Ace jerked the car into the parking space.

"OW!! ACE!!" We all shouted.

"Sorry guys." Ace only got his real driver's license in October and he still isn't really good with parking. Good thing this was a pretty empty lot.

"Hm," Usopp got out of the car and stretched. "Looks like we are early."

Sanji looked at his watch. "We're an hour early. C'mon guys, maybe they'll let us warm up."

"YOSHA!! IKE!" I said, sprinting forward.

"LUFFY!! YOU FORGOT YOUR BASS!" I heard Nii-chan call out. I quickly sprinted backward, took my bass from Ace, and ran forward on the same path.

"Look at him go." I heard Zoro mutter.

-Zoro's POV-

I heard something fall and looked around to see where it came from. It sounded like it fell down from the car.

"Ero-Cook's camera case..." A bright idea hit me, and I bent down to pick up the camera case only too find...

"HA! Got you again Marimo!" That shit-cook. He waved the camera right in front of my face.

I cursed him under my breath. I walked over to the trunk, grabbed my guitar, and briskly followed Luffy.

There were a couple of bands playing before us, so I decided to practice a little, or at least tune my guitar. I look in my pocket only to find pocket lint. I panicked.

I checked in all of my pockets. Even inside my lucky bandanna and inside my shoes. Nothing. I did notice, though, that there was something caught under the strings of the first fret. I tried putting my finger between the strings and getting it out. I only hit the string next to my finger. Oh shit. That was my lucky pick. And it was stuck.

"Hey Luffy!"

"Neh Zoro?"

"Can you get my pick out of me?"

"Sure!" He squeezed his finger between the strings and flicked it out.

Luffy only managed to get it out because he's a rubberman. A rubberman? Okay, the U.S. government re-modified the genetic structure of some fruits and "accidentally" put them in the market. Any poor unfortunate soul who managed to eat one of those, nicknamed the "Devil's Fruits" gained super-human abilites only at the cost of being able to swim. Luffy ate the Gum-Gum fruit, and as name suggests, is a human rubberband. Daily life with Luffy never really changed after eating it though. The powers gotten from the Devil's Fruits are nothing really romantic or adventurous, but they do help out with daily life every now and then. But, at least Luffy's not a sailor. Knowing him and his clumsiness, he'd probably have us jumping in the ocean everyday to save him. Well, enough with the history lesson, time to practice.

--Luffy POV--

I tried to tune my own bass because Nii-chan was in the bathroom, and everyone else was practicing. Sanji was arguing with the staff, who kept telling him not to smoke since the stage was... I forget the word. I think it was pronounced...um... "flammitable", and he'd set the stage on fire by accident. Anyway, I tried tuning my bass, and...well it didn't turn out so well...everything sounded flat! I watched the band before us start playing. I gulped and hoped Nii-chan didn't fall asleep in the toilet. Once he came out I called to him.

"NII-CHAN!! Can you tune my bass?"

He sighed. "Geez Luffy, I'm just the singer. You really gotta learn how to tune yourself." He took it out of my hands and I heard the pitch going up. I knew I was too flat. I heard Zoro call to me.

"HEY LUFFY!"

"Neh Zoro?"

"Can you get my pick out for me?" I got his pick out using my Gum-Gum powers. As soon as I was done, Ace was done tuning for me.

"Arigatou Nii-chan!" Sanji gave up arguing with the staff a while ago and was now tuning to the same low E as Zoro.

Usopp came running up to us."Oi! Everyone! It's our turn to practice."

"YOSHA! IKE!!" I called out.

Zoro, Sanji and Ace all sighed and said, "Time to go."

-END OF CHAPTER-

* * *

Notes time! WHEEEE!! Okay.

First of all, I have had this idea since I watched The Who's "Tommy" about a year ago. This has evolved over time and with the help of **THE EVIL TAKONO** (SEE THAT TAKONO?! I PUT UR NAME IN BOLDDD!! YAY!!) . If this story isn't popular enough, we will probably take it off. So, please R&R or we will eat your brains out. Just joking. But seriously, read and review.

And, here's the setting and their ages along with positions--

Year-somewhere in our decade. Could be this year, a previous year, or next year. I haven't decided yet.

Month- If you didn't get the reference to Sanji's age earlier, it's February.

Ages-

Ace-19 position: Lead singer

Sanji-17 going on 18 position: Lead guitar/ back-up vocal

Zoro-17 going on 18 position: back-up guitar/ back-up vocal

Luffy-15 going on 16 position: Bass guitar

Usopp-15 going on 16 Position: Drummer/ back-up vocal (rarely)

So, I hope you enjoy. And just a warning: This story will be Ace/Sanji/Zoro/Luffy/Usopp centric. The other crewmembers will make cameo appearences now and then, and I might give them larger roles (depends on my mood). So, if you are looking for hot LuNa or ZoRo lemon or something like that in later chapters, GET THE HELL OUT. Rating for Sanji's colorful vocabulary in later chapters. And, I watch BECK, so do not accuse me of copying that show's awesomlynezzzz and putting it into One Piece. As I said earlier, I been thinking about this for over a year, and I only started BECK last month.

JA NE!!

Kurry


	2. Chapter 2

**Emo Piece**

Chapter Two

---Luffy POV---

As soon as we all got on stage, we knew we were ready. We practiced for hours every single day just waiting for this moment. Well, not exactly THIS moment. This was just practice. But, we only had about 30 minutes to practice before the other bands came and the contest started. As we rehearsed about one million times, Ace counted off:

"One, two, three, four, LET'S GOOOOOO" He screamed the last part into the microphone while we started playing. If there is one thing Ace can do really well (except make out with his girlfriend) is scream really well.

All I can say is, practice went really smoothly. We took months just jellying together and getting ready for this day. We already won the Town Competition, now we had to win this competition, the District Competition, the County Competition, and then the State Competition. After the States is the National. And once we win the Nationals, we win the Emo Piece!

After we got off the stage, we hung around and listened to the band that was after us play. They were good. All of us made a silent agreement to do our best just to beat this band. What was their name again? Oh yeah, The Hyenas. Well, the name fit, since their singer was screaming like a hyena. But musically, they were great. Their bassist, Sarquiss, had a name for himself already in the area. I've heard of him. He really lives up to his reputation. Well, I bet our band could do better. We're beginners so were not really known, but I think we'll do a good job. After all, we're going to be the best in America. And having anything else in our band will just make us look bad.

The Hyenas finished their practice. They were the last one on the practice list, so we had another hour 'till the people started coming and we preformed. Wow, the Districts. I'm so nervous. I ran off after the others, who already left. Heh, I'm nothing without the others. They're all so awesome.

---Sanji POV---

Hmph. I inhaled the intoxicating fumes of the cancer stick and let it stay inside for a few moments. I exhaled and only had smoke disappear into the cool winter air. Smoking usually got the tension out too, but today my usual stress tactics weren't working. It's not that I wasn't nervous about winning or losing, it was about how THAT girl is going to be there and how THAT girl was going to rub it in my face if I lost. I'm usually a gentleman, always putting the ladies before myself. But THAT girl is not a lady, and never will be.

"Shitty cigarette isn't working if I'm still thinking like this." I grumbled.

Hmph. I took another drag and the latest exhale actually let out some of the tension. I guess I also didn't want to lose because I wanted to prove myself to Luffy. No one really says this because it is true, but Luffy's a great guy. The best actually. You really can't find anyone else like him anywhere. He's someone who has the ability to take out the best in you with just one kooky grin. And, he saved my life. I pulled up my sweater sleeve a little and ran my fingers over the deep scars in my wrist. Yeah, he really saved my life.

---Usopp POV---

I tapped a light rhythm on using my signature sticks, but not without my hands trembling. Where all this mind-racking nervousness was coming from, I do not know. Well, I guess impressing Luffy tonight. Luffy is one of, no, my BEST friend. He's one of those people who when you make mad, are still really nice to you and it makes you feel like total crap.

He's taught me a lot about life, indirectly of course. He well, let's just said never had the attention span to teach anything directly. But, I used to be the little scrawny boy who used to run away every chance I had. And after meeting Luffy, I learned to stand up for people dear to me and not to run away (well, most of the time). I guess that's what will give me the courage to sit behind that drum set and play my soul out. Thanks Luffy.

---Ace's POV---

I sipped a little out of the water bottle I bought. I didn't practice anything like the others probably would, because I needed to save my voice. I wondered what Luffy was doing. He was probably raiding the vending machines or attacking the fast food stands. Knowing him, he would probably have blown off all his money on food by now. I usually worried about what Luffy was doing, and this time I was especially edgy. I called him several times on his cell phone to the point where it was annoying him. After a few minutes he stopped answering my calls.

I don't know what it was. Was I just nervous? I guess it was that feeling bothering me again. I made a promise to make my brother the best he possibly can. I have to look after him until we can find mother. I have to look after him until we win the Emo Piece. So we can find mother. Stupid Luffy and his crazy ideas.

---Zoro's POV---

Che. Luffy. Pshhh. Ever since I agreed to partner up with him and become part of the "World's Greatest Band". It's been one crazy hell of a ride for me. Well, not just me, I bet for all of us. I have this strange feeling that I'm the only one who doesn't feel nervous about this whole thing. Everyone else is probably doing some crazy stress tactic to try and clear themselves up.

All for Luffy. Yeah. Without him, there would be no band, no us. He's a good guy. A pretty damn dumb guy, but a nice guy. I can understand why everyone is getting all worked up. But geez, we all just have to do our best. If we get our asses kicked, Luffy will probably just come back up with some crazy plan and we'll live happily ever after. He just has a knack of doing that.

---Luffy's POV---

I met up with the others behind the stage as planned. Ten minutes till we go on stage. This is IT. Yeahh.

"YOSHA!!!!!! IKE!!!" I ran forward on stage, the guys following behind me. Ike means go in Japanese as far as I can translate. English is a pain to speak sometimes since we only speak Japanese at home. Ace also makes me watch sappy Korean dramas. I prefer anime. But I still hate English.

Oh yeah, so when I was running forward, I kinda tripped over an amp and fell. I heard Ace shout my name and help me up. Zoro came up too and started laughing his head off. I couldn't help but laugh with him.

"Um, would you guys like an extra minute to set up?" the stage manager asked.

"No thanks, we're fine." Zoro replied through chuckles. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Usopp snickering as he sat down in front of the drum set. Sanji was smirking and shaking his head while setting up a microphone.

"YOSHA!!! IKE!!!" I exclaimed again as I started running. Looks like I tripped again. Turns out my foot was stuck under the amp and I ran so hard into it my foot was lodged underneath.

"Ah, nii-chan? Ehhh tetsudatte kudasai?"

"Nani? Aa i-yo." He smiled at my situation and lifted up the amp.

"YOSHA!!! IKE!!!" I yelled as I ran to my bass.

"Third time's the charm." I heard Sanji mutter.

I looked at the judges. It was kinda scary looking at them. Except this one guy kept sniggering like crazy. He should have just laughed. Usopp said it's never good to hold in a laugh because it makes the brain fairies go crazy and makes hot sauce come out of your ears. But that crowd kept staring at us. They were freaky.

The announcer guy came up and said, "And now, the winners of the Slight Throat town competition, Shame 'Till Death!"

No one cheered. Not fair. The Hyenas got a lot of cheering. Maybe it's our name? Hahaha there's a funny story behind that name…

-Flashback-

"Okay, we have ten songs, not including the covers. We can do this guys!" Ace smiled and Usopp and Sanji cheered. "Now all we need is a name."

Usopp and Sanji stopped cheering.

"Hmmnn…How about the Red-Hair Jam?" I asked Ace.

"NO! THAT'S SHANKS BAND!"

"Oh Yeah…How about the Mugiwara no Kaizoku?"

"…No…"

"Why not?"

"The Straw Hat Pirates is a stupid name, even in Japanese…think Emo Luffy, think."

"Awwww…fine. How about Shame 'Till Death?"

"Shame 'Till Death, huh? So when people abbreviate the name we'll be STD…" Usopp realized.

"Then I'm changing my stage name to herpes." Zoro declared with a straight face which sent Sanji into a laughing fit.

"So does everyone agree with it?!" I yelled.

Everyone shook their heads yes.

"YOSHA! NOW WE'RE THE STD'S!" I exclaimed.

"NO!!" Everyone else exclaimed.

"Nani? But everyone agreed…" I wondered.

"Luffy, do you even know what abbreviate means?" Usopp asked me.

"No." I answered bluntly.

Then Usopp went on to explain what abbreviate means but I didn't really pay attention so long as we had a band name. So we ended up being "Shame 'Till Death".

-End of Flashback-

The first song started out with my riff. Then Usopp came in with crash cymbal action that fit in perfectly with Zoro's Dm chord entrance. Then Sanji went all crazy with that weird sweeping stuff. And then Ace screamed into the microphone.

It all went uphill from there. Shishishishishi!

END OF CHAPTER

OMG. FINALLY DONE WITH THIS CHAPTER. OMG. Yes…now I can start writing the next chapter.

Few Translation notes-

Nani-As most of you probably know means "What?"

I-yo-If I'm correct (if not please correct me) means "Okay".

Aa-From my limited knowledge of Japanese means "Oh".

Tetsudatte kudasai-"Please help me (with this task)". Not 100% sure whether I should have used Tasukete kudasai ("Please help me I'm in danger") but again if I'm wrong, correct me.

Yosha! Ike!-Practically Luffy's catchphrase in the anime. Means "Yeah! Let's Go!!"

Shishishishi-Luffy's signature laugh from the manga.

Over n' Out—

Lt. Aldo Raine (aka Kurry)


	3. Chapter 3

**Emo Piece**

Chapter three

-Zoro POV-

---Flashback---

"I'm feeling pretty content." I replied

"Really? When you're content you tend not to show emotion. Why're you so happ---Oh I know." He smiled at me.

"Yes, 102 on Calculus A/B test."

His smile quickly turned into a frown, "I was talking about something else stupid. And don't remind me about that test, you know how bad I did on it."

I slipped my arm around his neck and pulled him toward me, "Then let me tutor you so you don't completely fail."

He shrugged off my arm, "I am! I finally gave in about fifteen minutes ago dumbass! But I didn't want to eat up your time before, you have a lead role to rehearse for."

"I'm glad you're happy for me, but I'd rather spend time with you than even MORE time with that crazy cast. It's enough to drive even Tres Iqus insane…"

"Wow…if it's Tres we're talking about, then I'll take your word for it. So you're technically saying 'I'd rather spend time with you, the most awesome person on earth than a crazy cast of throat slitting Sondheim fanatics?'"

"No."

"Aww---NANI?!"

"Either way, I'd go insane…" I attempted to hug him only to be elbowed in the stomach.

Then, he started running away.

"Hey! Get back here!! Teme!!" I yelled as I ran after him.

Yeah, I'm feeling pretty content.

---End Flashback---

-Ace POV-

"ZOROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! Why are you LATE?!?!?" My little brother jumped on our formerly missing guitarist. "Na? Why's your face red?"

Panting, he growled, "Because I ran here!"

If there's one thing about Zoro that you should remember, it's that he hates being asked personal questions. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) Luffy's the only one who can ask Zoro questions and get away with it. He tends to take advantage of the privilege, though.

"Why did you run here?"

"Because I realized I was late Luffy."

"Why were you late?"

"I have a feeling I just went around in a psychological circle…"

"What's a siciliojolical circle?"

"It's nothing…"

"Huh? What's nothing?"

"I give up…" and with that he flopped down on the couch and began tuning his guitar.

"Na? Zoro…?" Luffy poked the already overly pissed off green-head. Zoro merely grunted and continued tuning.

"_Hrithik _is late because he was taking a romantic stroll wi---"

The mere mentioning of his real name was enough to push him off the edge. He shot up quickly, cutting of Sanji's sentence.

"Shut up Sanji! Or—" He smiled, "Should I say, _Schuyler_?"

"SHITTY ALGAE HEAD!! YOU WANNA FIGHT!?" But a verbal answer wasn't needed, since the swords and the legs were already out.

This is where I felt it was necessary to stop snickering and whispering random comments to Usopp and break them up.

"Now now children, don't fight. Make rock music, not bloody floors that I'll probably be the one to clean up later."

"Thanks for caring." Sanji remarked and joined Zoro in picking up their instruments.

I smiled. "Ah 1,2 a 1,2,3,4!"

-3 hours later-

"Hey baby!" I could feel my whole world brighten as I picked up.

"Hey Ace."

I frowned at the phone, "Is something wrong?"

I heard some crackling, which I assume was her sighing. "Harry's not home yet…"

It felt weird suddenly hearing Harry after two hours of hearing Zoro. But there was some worry in the way she spoke so I ignored the strange "American" name he chose and reassured her, "Don't worry, he's probably just lost again. Or just taking a stroll. He'll come home soon I bet."

"Yeah, but on a bad day he gets home in thirty minutes. He left your house an hour ago."

I smiled to myself. She was so concerned about her twin. I couldn't blame her though. "If it makes you feel any better, Luffy and I'll go look for him."

I swear I could _hear_ her smiling over the phone. "Thanks sooo much baby, I love you."

"Love you t—" I was cut off by (most likely) one of their younger siblings pulling the phone cord (again), "—oo…"

"Nii-chaaaannn." Luffy swung down from one of the vents in the ceiling, where he was probably hiding from the crazy old man, aka Jii-chan. "Who was thaaaattt?"

I pinched his cheek and stretched it out. He's so cute like that sometimes. "That was Karina. Apparently Zoro's not home yet."

"YOSH! Then we should go look for him! He could be lost, and hungry! And he might need meat!"

I chuckled to myself. Luffy and his meat. "I was just about to ask you that."

"Let's go then!"

-2 hours later-

-Sanji POV-

Shit. Fucking shit. Where the fuck was that fuckin' shitty bastard? Fuck. Worrying everyone. What an asshole. I needed a shitty ass cigarette.

"ZOROOOOO!!!" I could hear my band mates calling out for him.

My hands were shaking. Fuck. I quickly lit one and took a drag. It wasn't working. There was no fuckin' way we'd be able to find him in this shitty dark. I crushed out the useless stick of nicotine with my foot.

Suddenly, I heard a groan.

A fucking shitty familiar groan.

In fact, it was so familiar, it sounded like algae head's groan.

"Zoro…? Zooooro…" I walked into the alleyway where the groans came from.

"Holy _Fuckin'_ SHIT! _ZORO_!"

I ran over to him. Holy fuckin' shit. Hoooooly fuckin' shit. I checked for a pulse. I yelled as I dropped his wrist out of my hand. That was way too much blood. Way too much blood. I quickly scrambled to pick up his other wrist, which wasn't as bloody. Oh good. He was alive. But barely.

I could hear Luffy run up from behind me.

"Luffy!" I snapped my head around.

"Sanji! I heard you yell and I ran over here as fast as I---" Then suddenly his face contorted into pure anger and rage, which was rarely seen on Luffy's face. "ZORO!! WHO THE HELL DID THIS TO YOU?!"

The bloodied body actually stirred, which decreased my heart rate.

The idiot smirked. HE SMIRKED! "Hey Luffy…don't worry about me…" That's when he decided to get up, blood soaked and all.

"ZORO! What are you doing?!"

"I took care of it Luffy, finally…everything's fine…absolutely fine…" And with that, he collapsed into the rubber boy's arms.

I saw a glossy piece of photo paper on the ground and picked up. My eyes widened and I recognized something—no, someone…"Oi, these are…"

"Zoro…?" Luffy's voice was shaking,

"**ZOROOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!**"


	4. Chapter 4

**Emo Piece**

Chapter Four

---Usopp POV---

"And then, I threw the MOST AMAZING uppercut seen by the human eye. But of course, it was I, the world's strongest fighter, 'CAPTAIN USOPP!' and therefore, it could not be seen." I smiled and flicked the tip of my nose with my thumb.

"WHOA! USOPP! YOU'RE THE COOLEST PERSON EVER!" Tony and Luffy gazed at me with sheer amazement as I recounted the tales of my various adventures throughout the globe. Zoro just rolled his eyes at me and turned to gaze out of the hospital room window. He sighed.

Luffy threw himself on top of our poor, injured friend and pinched his cheeks while whining, "C'mon Zoro! Don't be so old and cranky!"

The Melancholy Marimo tried to pry off the Goddamn Gum Gum Boy while sputtering defensively, "I am not old! And I'm not cranky!"

"Then why are you acting like it?" The little rubber boy stuck out his bottom lip.

"Yeah Zoro, why're you being so meeaaannn??" Tony Tony added.

"Because I'm bored." The grumpy swordsman turned away with his arms crossed, trying to not be guilted with the sight of the adorable little Italy-Japan duo.

While the two kids wrestled the big, burly, injured monster, I thought about the two younger ones. Of course, there was the bubbly luffy, but there was the cute Tony Tony Chopper. His real name is Antonio Choppanelli, but since he's so cute (just like cotton candy), and the youngest out of our circle of friends, which is in fact my posse, we just call him Tony, or Tony Tony, or Chopper. His facebook name is actually Tony Tony Chopper. And his profile picture is him in his devil fruit form (a half human/reindeer thing, or what Luffy calls a Tanuki) eating cotton candy while being hugged by one of Zoro's 4 sisters and (coughSanji'sgirlfriendcough), Arielle.

Sometimes, we called Tony, Luffy, and our other friend Coby the Axis Powers, because Tony is Italian, Luffy is Japanese and Coby is German. We try to fit Sanji there in the German part but he starts raving about he's not a Nazi and that is German side is Jewish, so we gave up on him.

As for the Allied Powers, there's our French friend Shuraiya (whose half Japanese), our rather flamboyant British woodshop teacher/fellow attendee of the local diner, Franky and I, the Great Captain Usopp, whose great-grandfather fought during WWII for this wonderful country.

There were also the Colonies (aka the bItCHeZ) which include our half-Filipino, half-Chinese friend Tralfagar Law, our lovely herculean Indian Hrithik(aka Zoro/Harry), and our friend Caime, who hails from the far-away land of Johannesburg, South Africa.

The history teacher that Sanji kept hitting on named Ms. Nico Robin, and I, the Great Captain of course compiled most of this list. She also frequented the local diner that Franky and our friends liked to spend most of our time at, so I always got extra help for AP Global (this list actually helped me get a perfect score my WWII test).

It looked like Luffy and Tony were done assaulting the behemoth of a man with cute hugs and girly snuggles that made the monster blush, which was a rare occurrence.

I nudged the two. "Hey guys, I think its time to stop killing Zoro. He should have a little break now." They awed in unison and faced me with puppy eyes.

"Do we have to go Usopp?" Luffy asked.

"Yeah Usopp, do we really have to?" Chopper echoed.

I heard the door open behind me. "Um…sorry, did I interrupt something?" Zoro snapped around to the door with flushed cheeks. Hmmnn, how strange…

"N-no they were just leaving. Right guys?" Zoro was pleading with his eyes.

Luffy smiled. He obviously knew something Tony and I didn't. "Yeah Shuu! We were just about to leave! Have fun, but not tooooo much fun!" He rambled on a bit, making Shuraiya turn beet red. Due to his immense resentment of the English language, he spoke this in Japanese. This is why neither Chopper, Zoro nor I could fathom as to why there was such pinkness in the Frenchman's face.

It was probably the fault of the magical blush sickness that was highly contagious in hospitals, especially when wives visited husbands. Or at least that's what I told Chopper…

---Zoro POV---

_"You're weak, Zoro. Too weak." I could see those Hawk-Eyes piercing into my soul._

_ "Yeah right shit-face!" I growled at him, "I could kick your ass anytime! I promised Luffy I'd be the best!"_

_ "Really? Then how could you get beat up by a bunch of idiots, just some weak idiots?" I turned around to the one that asked me that._

_ "S-Satoshi?" _

_ He just continued. "Zoro, how could you do that? We had faith in you. I thought you'd get those guys for me! Remember what they did to me? You promised to avenge me, didn't you?" _

_ "I didn't let you down! It was only a one mistake," I attempted to hide the desperation in my voice._

_ "One mistake? The greatest swordsman in the world doesn't make mistakes. And I thought you promised me you could be that." _

_ "Kuina?" I closed my eyes and tried to recollect myself, "I'm trying the hardest I can."_

_ "Apparently your best isn't good enough. How could I have trusted you? You're so weak…so weak…"_

_ "Yeah…and I don't want weak people as my friends. I only want the best in the world! What a loser…" I watched him turn around and walk away from me. _

_ "Luffy!?" _

_I could only stare in terror as the most important people in my life walked away from me, "Oi--!" I called out as I attempted regain my senses, "Wait--!"_

_Then, they disappeared._

"HARRY!" Someone shook me awake. When I looked to see who it was, I was startled.

"HUH? Oh wait, sorry Tash." Che, I swear I thought she was Kuina for a second. It was pretty damn frustrating.

Tashigi was cop who worked with one of our deans, Smoker, before he had to retire early due to some permanent injuries. We got to know each other after some sword fighting tournaments, and I always kicked her ass despite our eight-year age difference. Unlike the cook, I could hit a girl without feeling guilty.

"Harry, are you okay?" She gave me the Kuina stare. Perfect.

"Yeah, I'm fine, perfectly fine."

"Okay, just checking. Anyway, we caught the guys." She showed me some pictures. "These pictures are of them. If by any chance we caught an innocent man, tell me."

I glared at all of them. "Looks like we've got all the right people." She deducted, seeing my facial expression.

"Yeah, you sure did." I turned away from them.

"Um…" She began, "Harry?"

"What is it?"

"Why'd those guys beat you up anyway?" It was obvious she wanted to ask me that for a while, but didn't feel comfortable till then to ask.

"'Cause they were a part of some shitty garage band called The Hyenas that sucked balls and didn't realize that 'till we kicked their asses in the competition. They had apparently taking interest in mocking me out of the whole group and decided to use me as an example probably."

"But Harry, why you?"

"Haven't you read the case report?"

"I want to hear it from you."

"…" I turned away from her.

"Harry, please tell me." I kept ignoring her.

"C'mon Harry, answer me…"

"What's the difference between reading it and hearing me say it? You'll get the same answer either way…"

"You really don't trust me, do you Harry?" I swear I could see Kuina looking back at me. I turned away. "Harry…"

"Remember that kid from a couple of years ago? Satoshi Kimihiro?" I stared at my hands.

"Yeah, that kid that was from your school…why?"

"'Cause, it's sorta like that."

-**2 months later**-

---Luffy POV---

Law and I were walking to AP Music Theory class when Law suddenly decided to call out to the scariest teacher in the school, Dean Smoker.

"What is it Mr. Law?" Smoker grunted like a big, scaaaaaary monster.

Giggling, Law responded, "Wo ai ni—" Smoker looked at him really surprised,"—MA!"

"WHAT ABOUT MY MOTHER?!???!" Smoker roared, and started to chase Law down the hall.

"See you in class, Luffy~!" Law called to me as he was chased down the hall.

I pouted. "He shouldn't be late again, or he'll get detention." I had no idea what Law said to annoy Smoker, since it was in Chinese, but Law got in trouble so much that him and the Deans could call each other by their first names.

I entered class to find almost nobody there. "Oi, Brooke-Sensei," I asked him where everybody was. He let me speak Japanese to him all the time, since he was stationed in Japan when he was in the army during the 40's and 50's.

"Ahh Luffy-kun, there was an assembly for seniors last period, and I think it went overtime," The door creaked open, "oh look, someone is coming." A green head came out of the door. I gasped.

"ZOOORRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!" I tackled him as he came through the door. He yelled out in surprise as I jumped towards him, and we fell at the feet of a laughing Sanji.

"Luffy, I've been in school all day." Zoro told me as he squished my nose in.

"But I didn't see you." I responded in that funny voice you make when you hold your nose.

"Baka, if you weren't sleeping in Stat today you would have noticed me sitting right behind you."

I laughed, "Kishishishishi! You're right." Zoro pushed me up onto my feet and smiled.

"Luffy's will always be Luffy's."

"Come class, we need to start quickly, because I have to run to the freshman orchestra class next period." Brooke urged.

We all yelled "Ewww freshmen," then Chopper went into his own little emo corner of the classroom.

"Come on now kids, get into your seats!"

We all got in our seats, as Brooke did attendance. "Is Mr. Law late again? That's not good, if he's not here in the next minute then—"

"CÀO NĬ MĀ! NĬMĀDE BĪ!" Tralfagar ran into the class, with Smoker hot in pursuit.

"ZÁZHŎNG! GǔNDÀN!" Smoker chased him into class.

"Zázhŏng?" Law pouted and yelled back, "NĬ BÚ SHÌ RÉN!"

Smoker glared at him. "Sorry to interrupt your class Mr. Brooke, but I think I'll be the one giving Mr. Law detention today."

The class was doing some worksheets and was unfazed by the scene, except Zoro, who had two months without Law being a troublemaker. I poked him and asked him to help me with the worksheet.

"Zoro, what's a melodic minor scale?" Zoro sighed and turned away from watching Law's commotion.

"Luffy, we learned this in October. It's April now. Where have you been?"

"Sleeping in class?" I smiled, "Anyway, help meeeeeeeeeeeee!!"

Zoro shook his head and said, "It's a minor scale that has the six and seventh steps raised by a semitone."

"Nani?" I tilted my head to the side. I was really confused…

"See Luffy, if an A Minor natural scale is A, B, C, D, E, F, G, A, then the melodic scale would be A, B, C, D, E, F#, G#, A."

"Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh so you make the sixth and seventh steps sharp?"

"Basically."

"Arigatou!!" I turned back to scribbling on my paper. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Zoro chatting about something with Shuraiya and Sanji. When Law sat down behind me he said,

"Hey look, Harry's back." I grinned.

"You bet he is!"

--Zoro POV—

I was ready. The snow-white hilt of the Wadou was in my hand, and its blade in position. The knees I was sitting were shaking, but that was just natural. Maybe some evidence of the cowardice left in me.

Cowardice. Wasn't that what I was doing now? No, it was courage. The courage to accept defeat, like a true swordsman. The courage to die honorably, before whatever dignity left was exhausted.

My own weakness had let too many people down. And I knew if I kept on living, I would only disgrace and disappoint all of those who had faith in me. I was ready.

Until, I heard a cry. And like a reflex I sighed, sheathed my sword and walked quietly to the source of the noise. Goddamit. I crept into my parents' room and took the little weeping infant out. I knew Father was too tired to even hear the little girl's cries and Mother was too sick. It was usually my job, being the eldest, to take care of my little siblings. All seven of them.

I sighed. I calmed her down with a routine that was pure muscle memory. I figured it was a good thing that I'll never have kids. Ever. They act too much like Luffy. Which sibling was this again…? Oh yeah, Karishma. The name means miracle. I could never understand how such an annoying piece of flesh could have such a good name.

"Oi, Rishie, you have some explaining to do. " She just widened her eyes at me. "Why the hell did you disturb me at 1:00am?"

She responded by grabbing my finger and biting it. "OW! SHIT!" I swore silently. She followed up with some cutesy little annoying baby laugh.

"Fine! Be that way." With narrowed eyes, I pushed her tiny nose, which was a little bigger than the tip of my finger, and she grabbed it… and slobbered all over it.

I was too tired to get pissed off. I left the kid on the couch in took a quick glance at the clock on top of the stove in the kitchen. It really was 1 A.M. Shit. What day was it? Friday? I thought about what I had to do as I walked back to the couch.

That meant practicing my senior concerto with Brooke, free pizza for Seniors, training, Law Defying The Law Day (which was pretty much every day), training, Nami demanding her money back, training, Luffy trying to steal my free pizza, Chopper being chased by Sanji or Usopp for no apparent reason, lots of training, and tutoring Shuraiya.

The stupid guy was failing Physics, and was desperate for a tutor. I doubt he really needed a tutor, especially after what happened last time I was tutoring him…

I could feel the blood rushing to my cheeks. "OI! STUPID MIRACLE SHIT!" I pointed at my little sister once I was in front of the couch.

The stupid baby actually responded with a little, "Nah?"

"IT'S YOUR FAULT FOR MAKING ME THINK ABOUT THAT!"

"Nah?"

"Go to sleep." I made sure she was asleep after cradling her and slipped her back into her cradle. I got my swords, which were propped up against the side of the couch and hid them in their usual place, which was under the couch right next to my twin sister's yaoi collection. Death was going to have to take me at a later time. I had too much stuff to do first. I couldn't believe I just thought that much. Damn miracles.

* * *

OH snappppp…..I got reeeleeeee lazy with this chapter…I don't know…I'm too lazy :P I need more motivation. Like reviews. Yeah. Those would work. So if you want faster chapters spam my email with reviews.

--Kurry


	5. Chapter 4 Special

Ace's Birthday Special/New Year Special

_Back in December, New Year's Eve_

-Ace's POV-

"_Mahhhh…work…on New Year's Eve especially…this is so tiring. I wonder what Luffy's doing now. Oh well, I'll be out by five. But anyway! This should be illegal! Oh crap! The phone's ringing!"_

"Hello? Anyong Haseyo. Mushi-Mushi. Please pick your preferred language."

"Konnnnnnnichiwa Nii-chan! Shishishishi!" I almost fell out of my seat.

"Oi! Luffy! What are you doing calling my work phone?!" My stupid little brother always popped up whenever I thought about him. Therefore, he popped up a lot.

"Your cell phone's off."

"Oh. Now hang up! Someone might be calling!"

"Haaaaai!" Then, I heard some crackling noise and hung up.

I quickly took my cell phone out of my pocket and turned it on. The second it turned on; I received about thirty text messages. The newest one though, was from Luffy. Eh. 'New Year's Party at seven. Sanji's place'. I looked at all my other texts. They all said 'Happy New Year', or 'New Year! Woot!', or one from my own girlfriend, 'Happy New Yurrrrrr!!!'.

C'mon, I knew it's the day before my birthday, but c'mon. At least one person could've said 'Heyyy it's gonna be your birthday soon.', or 'Happy almost birthday'. I mean, that's what usually happened. But just happy New Year…goddamn it.

I texted Luffy back. 'Yeah sure, they'll let me out at five.' And clicked send. The phone rang again.

"Hello? Anyong Haseyo. Mushi-Mushi. Please pick your preferred language." Thank goodness it was Japanese…I don't know Korean…

---two hours later---

"TADAIMA!! I called out to the (almost) empty house. I then remembered that I was supposed to get something important in the mail today, so I checked the mailbox. It was full. I started sifting through the mail. I heard the sound of rubber slipping on the stairs, which turned out to be Luffy.

"Ah! Nii-chan! Okaeri!" He then pounced on me, as usual and we started laughing. We then picked up the mail, which he made me drop in the first place.

"Hey Lu, did you see anything in the mail by any chance?" We put the mail on the counter, where Jii-chan usually made us put it, or he'd throw us in some random forest or something crazy like that. Crazy old man.

"Na? About what?"

"About y'know…" I started to have butterflies in my stomach. _"This is really important, Goddamn it! Why did you even ask in the first place?"_

"Ummmmmm…" Luffy stuck out his bottom lip, deep in thought.

"_C'mon lil' bro…"_

"Ummmmmmmmmmm…" He was starting to furrow his brow. He really was thinking.

"_If you say something positive I'll give you all my meat for a week! C'mon…"_

"…No…gomene…" That's it. I was depressed. "Maybe they're being lazy in sending the mail! Don't worry, it's probably just because of New Year's and all!" He put on that big happy grin that always cheered me up. It was reassuring. Him and his damn optimism.

So we jammed to a few blues tunes, with me playing guitar and him playing the usual. After a while, he took out his contra bass, which we nicknamed 'Firewood', since it was probably worth as much, and started playing some of Mahler's 1st symphony (which I fell asleep in the middle of). I'd usually play the timpani part by plucking the A and D strings while he played the melody on the G string. It kept us occupied until it was time to go to Sanji's.

Since our wonderful Jii-Chan was at the diner, probably hitting on Makino or something, we didn't have a car. And, it was snowing.

---Ten Minutes Later---

"Frozen tire coming through…" I rolled Luffy in, who somehow got frozen into the shape of a tire after tripping over his feet.

"Baka…you should have worn a jacket! I told you it was snowing!" I scolded Luffy as he was defrosting in Sanji's bathtub.

"But Nii-chan~you aren't wearing one either." He whined.

"That's because of my Devil Fruit power! You shouldn't be so careless Luffy!"

"Sumimasen." I rolled him to the bathroom where Sanji had the tub filled with warm water and tossed him in. I spent about five minutes watching him defrost.

I sighed. Sanji came into the bathroom and sat next to me in front of the tub.

"How're ya doing there Luffy?" He teased.

"Good…" He replied, and somehow managed to lift up his arm into a thumbs up position.

"Sorry about this Sanji…"

His head snapped around to me. "Yo, don't worry about it. It gives me an excuse to hide from my own party."

I smirked, "Lemme guess…Arielle there?"

He punched my arm, "You got it!" Before we could continue, Luffy defrosted. Sanji gave him some clothes and he quickly ran to the basement, where the party was. I slowly followed after, taking in time to observe my surroundings.

It was the usual crowd, a bunch of our friends all doing different things, occasionally disrupting each other when Luffy would run from group to group, with the people from the previous one following. I chuckled to myself.

"Hey." I heard someone whisper from behind me. I snapped around.

"Oh sh---Karina…you…"

"Hi Ace." She smiled. Evil little…I looked into her beautiful eyes…angel.

"Wassup? Enjoying the party?"

"You don't look too happy. Something wrong?" She looked deep into my eyes.

How could she read me like that? "Nothing in particular…" she glared at me again. "Really…i-it's nothing."

Her face eased up. "Oh. Okay."

Sanji came up to her, "Oh Karina-swan, you're beauty does not cease to enchant me even on a fine night like this," Karina giggled, and my glare went unnoticed, "but I wanted to offer you a drink, or a snack maybe."

Karina smiled, "No thanks Sanji, I'm fine."

We both sat down on the couch and sighed. "I'm bored." She suddenly declared.

"Huh?" I could hear Sanji wooing Nami in the background.

"I want pocky." She announced and took about eight packs of pocky out of her bag. Holy crap. Suddenly, Luffy sniffed the air. He kept sniffing until he got to the couch. That's when he suddenly yelled, "POCKY!!!" And the two immediately started to wrestle over the ownership of the pocky.

While they were arguing however, Zoro took the pocky from his sister. Luffy tried pouncing on him to steal it, but Zoro ducked and Luffy ended up tumbling into Nami. And as Zoro was laughing at Luffy's misfortune, Law took the pocky only to lose it to Usopp, who then dropped it only to be picked up by Chopper. And when Chopper wasn't looking Kohza grabbed him by the ankles and shook him while he was upside down to make him drop the pocky, which was then picked up by Vivi. But when Vivi noticed Chopper's state, she rushed over to him only to have the pocky stolen again by Karina.

Then Luffy declared, "LET'S PLAY SPIN THE BOTTLE TRUTH OR DARE VERSION~!"

And a game of spin the bottle ensued. The smart ones, such as Law, Karina, Coby and I chose not to play. We got to watch Sanji waltz with a broom, [hissecretgirlfriend] Arielle tell us about the most embarrassing moment in her life, Usopp balancing carrots on his nose, and to the girls' delight, Shuraiya having to sit in Zoro's lap for the rest of the game. Nami said it'd bring down both their debts about $200.

Finally, it came that time for the ball to drop. We saw the performers do their stuff, while Sanji stared at the female hosts, especially Jennifer Lopez. Once the countdown started, we waited until the last few seconds to yell,

"THREE, TWO, ONE!!! HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!" That's when Sanji appeared out of nowhere with a giant cake and Luffy started to sing,

"Otanjyoubi omedoto, otanjyoubi omedoto," And the rest joined him in English singing, "Happy Birthday to you~" I found myself blushing. This was suprising…

Sanji set the cake in front of me. It was a giant three-layer cake, with an envelope on the top with a familiar logo on it. My hand hovered over the envelope.

"C'mon nii-chan! Take it!" Luffy cheered. I looked at him, then at the envelope again. "Oh fine," I gave in and opened it.

"What does it say?" Chopper asked and everyone crowded around me.

"I-I-I WON! I WON!"

And everyone started cheering, "T-The concert's on March 21st ! That's when I get to play the concerto with the New York Philharmonic in Carnegie Hall…wow…" I started to cry. This was like a dream come true. It took me two years to learn that concerto. I read more of the paper. "I'm only allowed to play one movement…"

"But which movement?" Zoro asked, "If they liked you that much, you're probably going to play just the third movement."

"You're right," I responded, "I'm only playing the third movement. That's the best movement though."

Nami took the paper from me. "You guys are such band geeks."

"Actually Nami, we're in orchestra…" Zoro commented.

Nami shrugged him off, "Who cares about what movement you're playing? Don't look a gift horse in the mouth and eat some of the cake that Sanji made before Luffy devours it all."

She was right. I quickly grabbed a slice of cake. It was strawberry shortcake, my favorite. And here I was eating my favorite kind of cake, surround by my most favorite people in the world. This was definitely a birthday to remember.

Owari

* * *

Okay I know, I'm a sinner who is lazy and likes to update really late. BUT IT'S NOT MY FAULT. I'm too tired. And Takono is slacking on the doujin. Whatever. Anyway I started writing this on New Year's and finished it last week. But I had to edit a video this week so I forgot to post it. Please don't kill me.

--Kurry


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